The 12^th International Congress

  on Physical Education and Sport

(May 21-23, 2004, Komotini, Greece)

Yijing Zhidong: A Unique Sport Science of China

(correct)

MA Huidi

(Chinese Academy of Art)

LIU Er

(Harbin Institute of Technology)

 Abstract: Yijing zhidong (attaining motion through tranquility) is a unique sport science born of traditional Chinese culture.  It usually takes the forms of sitting still, meditation, neidanshu (inner alchemy), Zen, and other pure forms of tranquil gongfu and aims at "cunxin yangxing" (retaining one's true mind and nurturing one's nature), "xiuxin lianxing" (cultivating one's mind and refining one's nature), or actively exercising the body and the mind by adjusting one's thinking, breathing, and posture.  The outward expressions of yijing zhidong include qigong, taijiquan, introspection, hobbies such as playing Chinese zither or Chinese chess, calligraphy, painting, writing poetry, and Zen practice.  Reviving and further developing China's unique sport science of yijing zhidong would help us to achieve harmony with Nature and a coordinated development of our material and spiritual pursuits, as well as help us attain a pure inner world with peace of mind, which in turn would help us rise to a higher level of human existence.

Key Words: Yijing Zhidong (attaining motion through tranquility)

Foreword-About Yijing Zhidong

    Yijing zhidong (attaining motion through tranquility) originated in the special cultural milieu of ancient China.  As the crystallization of the culture and philosophy of ancient China, it is a unique science of sport born of traditional Chinese culture.  It provides both the theoretical ground for and an embodiment of a unique sport science that gradually took shape on the basis of ideas from traditional Chinese medicine, incorporating elements from Confucian, Daoist, and Buddhist thinking.

    With regard to the relationship between motion and tranquility, this science advocates guirou zhujing (giving great importance to gentleness and tranquility), which stresses tranquility.  Emphasizing tranquility does not mean inaction, but means "zhi xuji, shou jingdu" (attaining the ultimate of the void and maintaining tranquility in sincerity), thus achieving yijing zhidong.  Similarly, gentleness does not mean weakness; rather, in the words of Lao Zi, "the most gentle in the world can control the toughest in the world".

    With yijing zhidong, one aims at "cunxin yangxing" (retaining one's true mind and nurturing one's nature), "xiuxin lianxing" (cultivating one's mind and refining one's nature), or actively exercising the body and the mind by adjusting one's thinking, breathing, and posture.

    Yijing zhidong usually takes the forms of sitting still, meditation, neidanshu (inner alchemy), Zen, and other pure forms of tranquil gongfu.  These different forms of tranquil gongfu exercise stress spiritual cultivation, giving attention at the same time to breathing and relaxation of the body and the mind.  In brief, yijing zhidong is characterized by song (relaxation), jing (tranquility), guan (attentiveness), shou (concentration), and xi (proper breathing).

    Major outward expressions of yijing zhidong include qigong, taijiquan, introspection, hobbies such as playing Chinese zither or Chinese chess, calligraphy, painting, writing poetry, and Zen practice, activities intended to bring about experiences resembling the "flow" as described and theorized on by the psychologist Mihalyi Csikszentmihalyi.

 The Intellectual Roots of Yijing Zhidong

     The theory of yijing zhidong owes a great debt to the philosophy of Lao Zi and Zhuang Zi.  Lao Zi is the first work to state that Dao is the source of everything in the world, while Zhuang Zi claims that Dao is qi (vital energy) and "all under heaven are united by qi".  Not only material beings are qi, but all spiritual phenomena are derived from qi.  Thus, it is necessary to cultivate one's qi by "concentrating one's shen (mental power)" in order to preserve one's jing (essence of life).  Overexertion would lead to the wasting of qi, overindulgence would lead to the wasting of jing, and ardent pursuit of money, fame, and status would harm one's shen.  Therefore, one has to adhere to the principles of wuwei (letting things take their natural course) and wuyu (being devoid of excessive desires).  Lao Zi advocates that "a quiet, tranquil life is the ideal life", while Zhuang Zi, citing Guangcheng Zi, states, "To attain to a long life, one has to live tranquilly, without exerting his/her body excessively or stirring his/her jing, suggesting that motion is temporary, while tranquility is what is essential.  Nei Jing, a classic of Chinese medicine, says, "If one adheres to a quiet, tranquil life, genuine qi would be with him/her.  He/She would be able to preserve jing and shen within in him/her, and how then can he/she get sick?"  Thus, in cultivating good health, one has "actively to preserve one's shen", putting all distracting thoughts to rest.  The specific techniques to be used are characterized by "concentrating one's mind on one point and sticking to it", such as used in exercises like qigong and taijiquan -- all in an attempt to "concentrate shen and qi" so as to achieve the effect of "the qi following the shen wherever it goes".

 The Philosophical Foundation of Yijing Zhidong

     The foremost question regarding the philosophical foundation of yijing zhidong is how to handle the relationship between the body and the mind.  A mind-body monism that regards xing (form) as united with shen and commanded by it is woven through the whole philosophical and medical tradition of China.  Xing and shen are defined at two levels: first, this pair of concepts refer to matter vs. spirit; second, they refer to the body vs. the spirit.  The relationship between body and mind is more closely related to the second level of meanings, but is also unseparateable from the first.  The most representative view of body-mind relationship was the materialistic monism that "shen is generated once there is xing", as proposed by Xun Zi ("tian lun" chapter in Xun Zi) -- a view that includes the belief that life's physical activities and spiritual activities share the same material foundations.  More specific views in this regard include: 1) "When the five organs have taken shape, shen and qi are housed in the heart, the soul is completely formed, and a human being comes into existence" ("tiannian" chapter in Lingshu); 2) Spiritual activities and physical activities are intimately related; 3) "Man has five organs that produce five kinds of qi, which is why he can have emotions of happiness, anger, sadness, worry, and fear" ("yinyang ying xiang" chapter in Su Wen); d) The mind is in command of man's spiritual activities, especially the intentional, purposeful activities of man; and 5) Changes in mood are due to changes in the entire state of the movement of qi, and yijing zhidong, though on the surface only a means toward longevity, actually has its key in the cultivation of the mind, with emphasis on the spontaneity and autonomy of the individual.

The Moral Foundation of Yijing Zhidong

    Moral conscience is an aspect greatly stressed in traditional Chinese culture.  As a psychological structure of human beings, moral conscience is bound to permeate their cognition, thus affecting and adjusting the cognitive process.  Moral conscience brings some moral standards to cognition and plays a role in the specific process of choosing from among different cognitive activities.  Thus, it sets limits to what means the subject can choose for the cognitive process, constrains the way the subject understands the object of cognition, and at the same time affects how the subject takes in new knowledge.  With such a cultural norm regarding morality, the construction of traditional Chinese medicine is necessarily affected; and since the latter is the cultural substrate from which yijing zhidong is produced, this means yijing zhidong must be greatly influenced by moral conscience.

The Aesthetic Foundation of Yijing Zhidong

     Traditional Chinese aesthetics gives a great deal of emphasis to the creation of a holistic artistic conception, as is amply reflected in the sport science of yijing zhidong.  For example, traditional Chinese aesthetics stresses that an aesthetically significant scene or situation is to be constructed with abstract ideas absorbed with one's soul, primarily through one's deep feelings.  In such a situation, the eyes or eyebrows of a figure may be invisible, but the figure must have a posture and a charm that merge harmoniously with the context.  Similarly, the significance of a scene does not lie in the specific tree or the rock that is painted, but in that these objects together would compose a scene infused with human feelings, whereby these feelings and the scene merge to create a complete artistic conception.  This is because the generation of beauty has to involve activities of the mind.  In other words, beauty is a result of the interplay between the subjective and the objective.  In this process involving both tranquility and motion, the pursuit and experience of beauty is often reflected in a harmonious unity of nature and man, of objectivity and subjectivity, of the real and the good, of objective law and purpose, and of necessity and freedom.

The Cultural Foundation of Yijing Zhidong

     Traditional Chinese culture stresses that different things should exist in harmonious proportion, rather than in dichotomic opposition.  The Confucian Doctrine of the Mean, much like the "golden mean" principle of the ancient Greeks, stresses a middle way without leaning in either direction, Daoist philosophy emphasizes harmonious coexistence over struggle, while Buddhism assigns great value to obtaining the middle way.  "Harmony as the most valuable thing in the world" has always been an ideal state for thinkers in China's cultural tradition.  A very basic idea of the Chinese is that all things in the world ought to be harmonized and coordinated, and that they should adapt to one another and coexist in harmony in a community.  This is the basic principle for the relationship between motion and tranquility that is "natural and organic".

    Traditional Chinese culture gives much value to moral cultivation.  Confucianism advocates that one should "each day reflect on his own conduct many times", "the gentleman is particularly cautious about his own conduct when no one is around", and emphasizes that "if one sticks to practicing the right way for a long time, he will someday feel that he has gained thorough knowledge with everything falling into place"; while Daoism emphasizes that one has to "observe in tranquility and examine the profound" in order to attain to Dao.  The strong element of introspection in yijing zhidong means great importance is to be given the individual's ability to understand, and stresses that the golden mean is to be the proper degree for various things and plainness is to be the aim, so that harmony and coordination both between the human body and its external environment and inside the human body itself can be achieved, until a balance is struck between motion and tranquility.

    As a unique sport science, yijing zhidong is a valuable part of the cultural heritage of the Chinese people.  To continue and further develop this form of exercise will constitute yet another great contribution to world culture by the Chinese people.

References

    1. CHANG Cunku, 1998. A Study on Chinese Medicine from a Cultural-Philosophical Perspective (zhongyixue de wenhuazhexue yanjiu), Jilin People's Press.

    2. WANG Xudong, 1989. The Aesthetics of Chinese Medicine (zhongyi meixue), Southeastern University Press.

    3. Csikszentmihalyi, M. 1990. Flow: The psychology of optimal experience. New York, NY: Harper & Row,U.S.

4. Goodale, T. & Godbey, G. 1988. The Evolution of Leisure: Historical and Philosophical Perspectives. Venture Publishing, U.S.

Special Acknowledgment:

I record my deep appreciation to Professor Thomas L. Goodale who is a famous philosopher on the leisure study in American academy, graciously and generously devoted his time and expertise to make this paper’s general idea for his immeasurable help in the final preparation of the manuscript and also appreciate his encourage.